Former cricketer-turned-commentator Nasser Hussain didn’t mince his words as he slammed England's white-ball game, saying that it's "way off" from their 2019 World Cup triumph on home soil under the regime of Eoin Morgan and Trevor Bayliss.
Nasser’s comment came after England succumbed to a 1-4 defeat in the five-T20I series against India and then suffered a four-wicket loss in the ODI series opener in Nagpur.
The Jos Buttler-led side needs to win the remaining ODIs in Cuttack and Ahmedabad if they are to finish the India tour on a high.
Subsequently, the Three Lions will travel to Pakistan to take part in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. They are slotted in Group B alongside Afghanistan, Australia, and South Africa in the eight-team 50-over tournament.
“It’s followed similar paths, hasn’t it? Most of the games, even the T20s, have been periods where they’ve been in the game and then a clumsy mistake like that (around Phil Salt’s run-out in the first ODI). Then spin comes on, Ravindra Jadeja bowls beautifully.
“The T20s they lost and they lost a lot of those games for spin as well. So India, obviously white ball in that final in the World Cup in Ahmedabad, they won the T20 World Cup, so they’re a formidable white-ball side. And also the depth to Indian cricket – Abhishek Sharma in those T20s – wow, what a player.
“Shubman Gill comes back in. Virat Kohli doesn’t play. Whoever they pick, they are a wonderful side. But England’s white-ball cricket for quite some time now has been way off (from) where it was under Morgan and Bayliss. So I do think it’s a very important few months ahead," said Hussain on Sky Sports.
England’s ability to tackle India’s spinners has come under scrutiny, and Hussain felt they need to figure out the art of occupying the crease for a long time in the 50-over format.
“You wouldn’t say they’ve been getting out to big spin. It’s not like day four of a Test match in Mumbai or something. It has been through not picking spin,” Hussain stated.
“I know Harry Brook has really struggled, hasn’t he? So I think it’s the picking of spin and that aggressive nature really. This England side, whenever they lose, the thing that’s always asked – are they going too aggressive? Now they’ve got Root in there just to play that anchor role. He didn’t quite bat long enough (in the first ODI).
“But I think it’s that aggressive nature. Eoin used to say that ’50 overs isn’t a long time, just go hard for every delivery and see where you get to’. So maybe that’s McCullum’s point, we’ve got to take a bit of pain to work out the tempo.
“And we’ve both said, they don’t play that much 50-over cricket. They haven’t played that much since the last World Cup and they don’t play domestically 50-over cricket. So it is working out how long that batting innings is and how hard to go and when not to go quite so hard," he further remarked.
(With IANS Inputs)
